Goodbye, My Darling Little Cat

 

Jinjur awaiting treats, and why am I taking my time about it?

This is Jango and Jinjur, respectively.  Jinjur showed up at the trailer park I lived at in 2001.  She was just a kitten.  At the time I had a no pets policy that had been in place since I was divorced.  I fed her, and a couple of days later I looked across the street and she was staring at me.  I walked over and got her and I love her more every day.  She has very little use for me except for the treat thing.

I found Jango living under the hood of a neighbor's car in the spring of 2002.  I wanted a companion for Jinjur, the neighbor told me I did not know how to handle cats so when she grabbed the little gray demon he laid her hand open but good, I snatched him out of the air when she dropped him.  After that he could do no wrong!  Jango died in 2018.  One day he got all wobbly and that night I petted and brushed him and put on Old Cottonfields Back Home by CCR and waltzed around the room with him until he purred like a sewing machine.  He died that night trying to get a drink of water.

General Jinjur surveys me with disdain from her kingdom on the Colorado River.  Why am I so useless?

 

General Jinjur, The Marvelous Land Of Oz.  Jinjur the Cat's namesake, and her Army of Knitters is most apropos for Jinjur's razor sharp claws.  John Neill, illustrator.

 

Visual pun.  Photo by me, photoshopping by my dad, 2002.  Jinjur treated the house as her own jungle, here she ignores gravity and overlooks her realm.

 Jinjur has been very sick lately, incontinent and malnourished.  She was always the most fastidious of cats and it broke my heart to see her in such shape. I took her to the vet twice, and finally got another refill of antibiotics in a last Hail Mary to try and save her.  Two days ago she quit eating, and couldn't walk.  Last night she would mew until I picked her up, which I guess is what she wanted as she did not cry after that.  I took her to bed with me, usually she would not sleep with me but preferred the couch.  I did not do that before as she would try to leave and I did not want her jumping off the bed, that time was past forever.  She lay against my arm and dreamed her kitty-cat dreams of slow mice and obedient humans.  This morning at 4:48 she was cold under my arm where she was when we both went to sleep, she must have left me about 1 or so.

I had Jinjur for 19 wonderful years and I already miss her.  She was not having a good life towards the end, I don't think she was able to absorb nutrition.  She ate turkey like a pig on Thanksgiving, I knew it was false hope but I hoped anyway.  Since only in the last couple of days did she seem to be in pain I did not have her put to sleep as I wanted her to die in my arms, I was very lucky and that is what happened.  I have her wrapped in her favorite blanket in the back yard with Jango, they will play together again and maybe if I am found worthy I will get to see them and we will all cross the bridge with the other partners that have gone before.  Maybe.

Goodbye, little girl, it would have been selfish for me to want you to stay longer.  I am sorry that I did not always understand you when you tried to talk to me.  I was mean and thoughtless at times and I will never forgive myself.  You were a third of my life and for what remains of it I will cherish our time together.

Good hunting.

Here Billy amuses Jinjur.  He is probably just amusing himself while annoying the cat no end.

Drawing posted November 17th, 2017.

General Jinjur Davis.  October 31 2001 - November 31 2020.